The Book of the Cave of Treasures

by E.A. Wallis Budge

The Book of the Cave of Treasures is a sixth century Christian sacred history written by a Jacobite. The text is attributed to Ephrem Syrus, who was born at Nisibis soon after AD 306 and died in 373, but it is now generally believed that its current form is 6th century or newer. The assertion that the Cave of Treasures was written in the 4th century is supported by the general contents of the work. This book and the Book of the Bee are both interesting because they present the 'history' of the world from the creation to the death of Christ, thus reproducing a good bit of the story contained in the Bible, but they also contain many stories not included in the canonical account, some of the material being Jewish, some of it Greek, and some of it Mesopotamian. Transcription standards and notes: Underlines represent breve (short) markings over vowels, and dots under consonants, ` and ´ represent right and left pointing apostrophes in transcriptions of Semitic words. Some of the references to the pagination of the Syriac MS. (i.e., in the format [Fol. 8a, col. 1]) were off and have been corrected; missing references, however, have not been supplied. Some of the transcriptions of names from the Syriac have been standardized.

Genres: Theology, Religion

234 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 1, 2003

About the author

Sir Ernest Alfred Thompson Wallis Budge was an English Egyptologist, Orientalist, and philologist who worked for the British Museum and published numerous works on the ancient Near East.

Reviews

[Kat · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting collection of apocrypha of questionable authenticity, but still fascinating as an insight into what early Christians included in their general beliefs. Kind of borders on headcanon at times with some of the elaborate connections being. And at one point the writer declares that since nobody else knows accurately all of the generations from Adam to Christ, he will write them down for us (it's never explained why he knows and nobody else does). Love it.

[Leslie · Rating 3 out of 5]

While the story is great, the narrator of this Audible audio book is terrible. M. Alexandria Steeves is the narrator. The mispronunciations were such a distraction that I found it difficult to finish. I'm disappointed because it is a great medieval story.

[Siobhan]

Link to free audiobook: https://youtu.be/XkrsNK6Wrk8

[Abri Theart]

Interesting!

[Fiona Robson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an amazing book to read - a fascinating apocryphal work which supplemented other knowledge e.g. it went into Mary's genealogy and gave further anecdotal accounts of the patriarchs etc. Was particularly interested in tales of the Grigori or "The Watchers".

[Jackson Conrad · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gives a great "outline" of life from Creation to the Death and resurrection of Jesus.